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Stevens worries about corruption probe

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WASHINGTON (AP) - Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator and once the chief power broker for dispensing federal dollars, says he's worried that a corruption investigation "could cause me some trouble" in running for re-election next year.

The 83-year-old Alaska Republican has drawn Justice Department scrutiny over a renovation project in 2000 that more than doubled the size of his home in a resort town surrounded by glaciers.

The remodeling was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators. Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Allen is cooperating with the FBI, and investigators appear to be looking at whether VECO got anything in return for the home improvement help.

Sen. Stevens, who has served since 1968, has been caught up in a larger probe that included FBI raids last summer at offices of six Alaska legislators—including Stevens' son, Ben, who was then the president of the state Senate.

"The worst thing about this investigation is that it does change your life in terms of employment potential," Stevens said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It doesn't matter what anyone says, it does shake you up. If this is still hanging around a year from November, it could cause me some trouble.

"I'm working to get this concept out of my mind that someone is trying to make something illegal out of all this, That's what's really disturbing."

Stevens is a powerful insider in the clubby U.S. Senate.

Prior to the Democratic takeover this year, Stevens' longevity made him president pro tempore, a mostly symbolic title but one that made him third in line for the presidency after the vice president and speaker of the House.

He's known for wearing cartoon ties with characters that signify his mighty image, like the Incredible Hulk.

The senator who once described himself as "a mean, miserable SOB" was chairman of the of the Appropriations Committee from 1997 to 2005, except for 18 months when Democrats controlled the Senate.

That meant every senator was beholden to him for federal funding of projects in his or her state, and Stevens was known for the money he sent back home. It's hard to find a major Alaska business that he hasn't helped and that hasn't donated to his campaigns and political committees.

Over the past six years, VECO executives and the company itself contributed more than $119,000 to Stevens' political organizations, according to tracking by Political Money Line, an Internet database. Of that amount, Allen contributed $20,000. Stevens and Allen also are longtime friends and partners in a race horse investment.

The remodeling job at Stevens' home was fraught with problems at the start. He estimated it would cost about $85,000 and told city building officials he would be his own contractor.

The plan was to raise Stevens' single-level home and, beneath it, construct a new first floor with two bedrooms, a game room and sauna. Complete with a wraparound porch, the completed project would be twice the size of the original, modest house in the town of Girdwood. Building records don't indicate how things went wrong, but somehow the framing was botched and help was called in to fix it.

Carpenter Augie Paone has said he was hired by an employee of VECO. Rather than submit his bills to Stevens, Paone said he submitted them to VECO founder Allen.

Stevens needs to retire. In all likelihood, whether he retires or not this will remain a safe GOP seat. I think what people don't realize is that in Alaska, corruption doesn't play the same as everywhere else in the country. "Pork" is not disdained the same way, but highly regarded. Stevens' ridiculous fight for the bridge to nowhere funding alone probably got him enough votes to ride out the election in 2008 if he chose to run again. If he retires, republicans will just replace him with a younger fresh-blood and democrats are unlikely to change the prospect of taking over this seat even if they hammer Stevens away on ethics....

Now Sen. Domenici (R) in New Mexico, that's a different story. Much more hope for democrats there by hammering the corruption theme.

Stevens has much more to worry about then his own corruption. He included his children and grandchildren...unto the third and forth generation...in his corruption scheme. He is old, he will die, and he will die dirty and corrupt. The living offspring will be left to carry the burden of his relay corruption. They may hide behind their stolen riches and screech they are among the protected because of their status…they are in truth dirty and corrupt.